The national efforts underway to include engineering in K-12 science education present a variety of new challenges, including how to prepare teachers to teach a new discipline. In this paper, we focus on elementary teachers and how they enter into "responsive teaching," in which they closely attend and meaningfully respond to students'…

Situational interest is short-term interest that is linked to environmental factors in a particular situation. Previous studies have found that some science teaching techniques can be very effective in generating situational interest among students, but the reasons why these are effective remain unclear: Hands-on activities, for example, are known…

We teach a course for elementary education undergraduates that gives students an opportunity to conduct open-ended scientific inquiry and pursue their own scientific questions in much the same way that practicing research scientists do. In this study, we compared what our students say declaratively about the nature of science (NOS) in surveys and…

Despite being identified as an essential scientific practice, argumentation is rarely integrated into instruction. This could be influenced by teachers' pedagogical design capacity (PDC), which considers teaching as a design activity influenced by both instructional resources (such as tools and professional development (PD)) and teacher resources…

Effectively designed science learning environments revolve around students' sensemaking through the use of evidence to ground explanations about natural phenomena. However, little research has been conducted to investigate elementary teachers' learning to promote students' sensemaking in elementary (K-5) classrooms. The purpose of this…

Although teacher educators have achieved some success in improving teachers' understanding of the nature of science (NOS), helping teachers teach NOS has proved a much greater challenge. Currently, there are few examples in the literature of teachers who effectively teach NOS, and fewer still that rely on student outcomes as a measure of teachers'…

This article examines teachers' perspectives on the challenges of using a science reform curriculum, as well as their learning in interaction with the curriculum and parallel professional development program. As case studies, I selected 4 veteran teachers of 2nd or 3rd grade, with varying science backgrounds (including 2 with essentially none).…

This paper presents results from a study aimed at helping preservice elementary and middle school teachers incorporate model-centered scientific inquiry into their science teaching practices. Specifically, the authors studied the effect of using a guided inquiry and modeling instructional framework (EIMA) and accompanying science methods…

Examines factors that influence personal science teaching efficacy and science teaching outcome expectancy in elementary teachers. Data collection methods included questionnaires and interviews. Results indicate that preservice and inservice experiences, such as success in high-quality science courses and workshops, access to resources and time,…

Interviews and surveys using the Science Teaching Efficacy Beliefs Inventory of (n=120) preservice elementary teachers' science teaching self-efficacy before and after planning and teaching a cooperative elementary science lesson at a local public school found evidence that early cooperative field experience had a positive influence on the…

Professional development (PD) for primary science teachers is recognized as an important activity which can support improved science education for students. Analysis of interviews with practicing primary science teachers is used to identify the range of PD experiences of a sample of teachers from Western Australia. Teachers' reasons for attending…

This investigation sought to identify the motivations that comprise teachers' agendas when leading student fieldtrips to science museums or similar sites. A survey distributed to upper elementary teachers resulted in a variety of open-ended responses that were analyzed and coded to identify recurring themes. In addition, ten teachers planning to…